Mollie files suit against her husband Geoff. She says Geoff can be overly competitive when playing board games, and takes his sweet time plotting the perfect move to crush his opponents. She wants Geoff to get a move on! Geoff says playing the game means taking the time to do it right. Who's right? Who's wrong?

In my university days, my friends and I would play Risk, until Matt V came along. Matt V took four hours to plan out his first move. The game was over in 12 hours, it was three turns, and was possibly the least entertaining board game I've ever played. It was the last time I ever played Risk.

I genuinely can't believe it's possible to take 15 minutes to take a turn in Ascension. You have like seven cards you can buy/fight. I have played games where someone cycled his entire deck and bought six cards and he didn't take more than five minutes.

_________________Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes,

There are six cards in the center row in Ascension. It is possible to play dozens of cards in a turn, since many of the heroes in ascension let you draw cards. It's even possible to "go infinite" in ascension by using the construct that you banish to take an extra turn. In Chronicle of a Godslayer, this requires buying everything in the center row deck every turn, but in the first expansion, it's much easier with reclamax and a card that lets you turn other constructs into mechana ones.

That said, unless you're doing that, a 15 minute turn is RIDICULOUS.I can finish a whole GAME of ascension in less than 5 minutes on the iOS application. The game takes longer in paper because of shuffling and whatnot, but most shuffling is done between turns in Ascension anyway.

Magic and Ascension are subtitled because they wanted to be able to specifically refer to the first set. Only the first Ascension set is called Chronicle of the Godslayer - the other expansions have different subtitles. That's what they were going to do with magic too, initially, but the back of the cards says Magic the Gathering, and they decided before printing Arabian Nights that it was better to keep all the backs the same, so all of magic is subtitled "the gathering."

We are actually planning to buy a cooperative game for our next board game enhancement. Geoff's not a Lovecraft person so Arkham Horror doesn't appeal at all, but I'm researching other choices.

And yes, my husband does routinely take between 7 and 10 minutes per turn in the later stages of the game. I timed him last time we played, and even with him trying to go fast because of the timer he wound up averaging around 5 min/turn after the first few rounds. We have all the Ascension expansions, so it's possible for turns to just drag on and on and on as new monsters and events and blah blah blah come out.

There were a couple of points I meant to make but didn't. One is that these games aren't cheap (and as I said, we own all the expansions because Geoff is "a completist") so by not playing them I feel like we're throwing money down a hole. The other point that I started to mention but nerves and distractions caused me to lose my train of thought-- I've played a lot of Go, and in that game the goal is definitely to provide an even match. So if one player is better than the other, the weaker player will get kind of a head start. As people get better at the game, they don't need so many stones at the beginning.

Pandemic is a great cooperative board game, though I don't know how well it plays with two players. Fair warning about cooperative board games though: sometimes they end up being even more divisive than competitive board games. The overly competitive player inevitably starts dictating the moves of the other players OR becomes vindictive if you lose.

I laughed at hearing about not liking Dominion so you move into Ascension and now Fluxx - all three games tend to revolve pretty heavily around order of operations and maximizing the number of moves you take. I agree with the judge's ruling, even if Geoff doesn't know how to pronounce "Mechana".

It's a shame that you're already financially invested in Ascension, because the iOS app is spectacular. Moves faster, much cheaper, and it gives Geoff AI opponents when you can't handle it any more.

Have you tried Lost Cities? It's two-players exclusively, it's fairly cheap, very simple and in its very nature is nearly impossible to play slowly. It might be a tad above a 6-year-old just because it involves some quick math, but she may be able to handle it. A must-own for any board-gaming couple.

I played a couple games of Citadels with a friend using the 2-player rules, and it was enjoyable. It's anywhere from 2-8 players, and the 2-player version basically has each player playing as two, which works surprisingly well.

I LOVE Pandemic -- it's probably my favorite game, but I don't know that it would be a great match for you two. It lends itself to overthinking turns, and I often see one person taking over for the whole team. It's also a really, really, punishingly difficult game if you're playing it correctly, and can literally end itself in one round pretty easily. Which is extra frustrating if you've been spending 10+ minutes on each turn.

A co-op game I've only played once but had an AWESOME time with is Escape: The Curse of the Temple. If you're okay with random, casual mechanics (which I assume you are since you've been having a good time with Flux), I think you all will really like it. It's fundamentally a dice rolling game -- everyone has their own set of dice to roll, everyone plays simultaneously, everyone's working toward the same goal, and it's TIMED. I think your six year old could have a great time with it, too. I highly recommend giving this one a try, if you can.

Another great co-op game is Flash Point. I'm not sure how well it plays with 2 people, but it's a bit less intense than Pandemic while keeping that co-op versus the board mechanic.

A game I recommend to everybody is Dixit. It's not co-op, but it's a storytelling game that you can't min-max (which seems like Geoff's issue with Ascension). It's fun, creative, casual, gorgeous, and good for kids. It doesn't play with 2, and it's best with more players (think 5+), but it's a lot of fun.

Finally, a 15 minute turn in Ascension is ridiculous. I love those awesome, cascade-y turns, but...come on. A full game is only supposed to take 30 minutes.

Thanks for the suggestions! I have looked at Lost Cities and Pandemic-- Pandemic especially would really appeal to me, except I'd probably wind up going to jail for husband-murder. Dixit is another one that's been on my list, it really seems like my daughter would love it.

All I really wanted was for Geoff to agree to play with a timer, I threw the other stuff in there as haggle room. He has agreed to time limits, so I wound up winning in the end.

Thanks for the suggestions! I have looked at Lost Cities and Pandemic-- Pandemic especially would really appeal to me, except I'd probably wind up going to jail for husband-murder. Dixit is another one that's been on my list, it really seems like my daughter would love it.

All I really wanted was for Geoff to agree to play with a timer, I threw the other stuff in there as haggle room. He has agreed to time limits, so I wound up winning in the end.

Honestly, Pandemic COULD be a great trial by fire type thing, especially if you follow the rule that you're not allowed to show the other players your cards. It requires a tremendous amount of cooperation, communication, and planning, so it could conceivably equalize your play styles a bit. I also really love it I know it's available on iOS for, like, 7 bucks or something, and I haven't tried it, but it supposed to be a pretty good port.

Regardless, I think it's awesome you all play board games together! Good luck!

I've had a recent breakdown with board games and one thing I have to remind myself when playing board games with friends or family is the "with friends or family" part. Board games are a social activity and they're far more enjoyable when everyone puts friendship ahead of winning. We've had to retire many "classic" hobby games like Ticket to Ride, Power Grid, and Dominion that feel more like competitive jigsaw puzzles than social experiences. That's not to say that there's no place for competitiveness, but players will likely forget the results of a game a couple weeks later. Kudos to you all for switching to something like Fluxx, which is less about the game and more about the company around you!

I'll also second the recommendation on Love Letter and Galaxy Trucker (though Trucker has tons and tons of fiddly pieces). I've enjoyed Pandemic, but that one often becomes one experienced player barking orders to everyone else, which is anti-fun.

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